NORFOLK, VA. -- Junior guard Pierre Greene (Chicago, IL.) scored 23points, including a late bucket to give the Monarchs of Old Dominion University a 87-85 exhibition win over Court Authority Tuesday night.
Sophomore forward Ricardo Marsh (Mebane, NC.) added 14 points,while Andre McCullum (Whiteville,NC.) hauled in nine rebounds. Greene was 9-12 from the field and wasperfect from the free throw line in fiveattempts.
Old Dominion led by as much as 12 early in the game (32-20 with 8:37left in the half), but Court Authoritycut it to four by halftime, 46-42. Court Authority led by four, 53-49 on athree-pointer by Chris McNeil. TheMonarchs took the lead for good, 59-58 on a layup by Michael Williams(Thomasville, Ga.). The lead increasedto 11, 80-69 with 6:59 left, but Curtis Blair's jumper with 1:58 remainingcut it to one, 84-83. Pierre Greene thenscored on a short jumper and freshman Troy Nance (Va. Beach, Va.) hit afree throw to secure the victory.
Court Authority was led by Charles Jeffers on with 20 points, andformer Richmond standout Curtis Blairadded 17 points. E.J. Sherod (ODU '97), who captained the Monarchs 1997CAA championship team scored14 points for Court Authority.
The Monarchs shot .559 from the floor and rebounds were even at 35each. Old Dominion opensthe regular season on Saturday night against Gardner-Webb at 7:35 p.m. inthe fieldhouse.